Somewhere In The Wind
by BenadrylCrumplesack
Summary: Dr. Halsey never wanted the brilliant young doctor she mentored more than she did now, the doctor who's expertise in neuroscience & biotechnology would be invaluable in trying to stop Cortana. Too bad she'd stopped letting Dr. Halsey mentor her. Join Dr. Halsey, the Chief and Arbiter as their memories tell the story of a brilliant young doctor who chose helljumping over science.
1. Chapter 1

Dr. Halsey stood with the Arbiter and Commander Palmer and breathed in relief as she saw John exit the Pelican with Spartan Locke. "Took you long enough." She said softly, then stepping forward and holding out her arm. John reached out and took her hand, squeezed it briefly, then let go. She felt a pang in her chest at his reaction, the bare minimum of warmth he'd showed her. She wanted to hug him, to take off his helmet and see his face. Look into his eyes and touch his hair, assess whether he was hurt, emotionally or physically. But she wouldn't. There were far more pressing matters to attend to.

Like Cortana. A problem she had created. A problem she was responsible for. And, once again, it was her actions that lead to John being put in danger.

She searched Spartan Locke's face as he removed his helmet, his usual hardened scowl looking particularly brooding. "I take it you don't have good news."

"No. Not even close." Locke said, looking at Palmer. "Cortana's gone from Genesis, the Forerunner shield world. We don't know where she went."

Palmer rubbed her forehead. "And we can't contact anyone outside of this area, thanks to her earlier shenanigans."

"John." Dr. Halsey was almost pleading with him. "Tell me you were able to stop her."

John simply shook his head slightly. "No. In her own words, her plan is too important to stop."

"Do you know why she's doing all this?" Dr. Halsey asked him.

"We're not sure. She didn't make it very clear. But it has something to do with using the Guardians to keep troublesome worlds in line." John told her, his voice rougher than usual. Dr. Halsey's heart ached for him, and for what he must be feeling at this moment.

Dr. Halsey sighed. She had a suspicion as to why Cortana was doing what she was doing. But it had never been like Cortana to want power, to want control, to want to rule the masses with an iron fist, imposing her will. Dr. Halsey knew this, because she herself had never wanted power, beyond the kind of power that allowed her to work unhindered. She had no delusions of grandeur such as the one Cortana was displaying, not even in her worst moments.

Cortana had always been bright, curious. Thriving off of a steady flow of information. Much like the human she had been created from.

Dr. Halsey pulled herself out of her thoughts and looked back at John. "This isn't like her. I have my theories about why she's doing this, but I don't have the kind of information and knowledge I need to be able to properly solve this problem." She shook her head. "I abandoned my work on AI's."

"Abandoned?" John asked.

"Not abandoned, I suppose. I gifted it. To someone far more qualified to do that work. Someone with an intricate knowledge of neuroscience and biotechnology. Someone who's brilliance rivaled my own, and experience in that kind of work exceeded my own, I felt handing over my work was the most natural thing to do." Dr. Halsey stopped herself. She was beginning to rave like a person mad.

"Would that person be able to help us?" Palmer was examining her, having been eavesdropping on a conversation that clearly was none of her business, otherwise it would have been directed at her.

"No." Dr. Halsey looked away from the Spartan. "She became irresponsible. Foolish. Forsaking science for cheap thrills."

"Who are you talking about?" John asked, taking a step towards here. He was probably wondering if they were thinking of the same person.

Dr. Halsey allowed herself a small smile. "I'm talking about the one person in this world who had the potential to surpass me." She looked up at John. "Maybe you remember her. A doctor and a scientist, like myself. I know you were both involved in the Battle of the Citadel."

"Are you going to tell us, or wax poetic all day?" Palmer demanded.

Dr. Halsey felt a flash of irritation. Her former protege deserved all the accolade anyone could give, deserved far more accolade than this Spartan did. "Her name was Voelker. Leigh Voelker."

She remembered the day she'd first heard that name. A colleague who's name she hadn't bothered to remember had approached her in her lab and asked if he could introduce a Leigh Voelker to her. She'd acquiesced, for reasons she didn't know. But she was glad she did.

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"Dr. Halsey, I'd like you to meet Leigh Voelker."

Catherine had turned slightly in her chair to glance at the person she was being introduced to. The person was a woman, in her early twenties, and she stood rigidly with her hands behind her back. Not the kind of rigid posture of someone who was uncomfortable or intimidated, but rather that of someone who took great care in controlling their body language and behavior. The girl, because that's how she seemed to Catherine, had high sharp cheekbones, and a narrow angled jaw, which was set. Her eyes were blue, calculating and were slightly narrowed at Catherine. She couldn't discern the expression in them. She had light blonde hair, long and straight, pulled back tightly into a high ponytail. The girl was tall, about 5'10, and her body was lean and strong, yet seemed to have a certain finesse about it. Whoever this girl was, she practiced some kind of craft, she did not sit in a laboratory all day. The girl was not pretty, but neither was she plain. She had the sort of face that was pleasant to look at if you had to, but not pleasant enough to draw a second glance if one caught a glimpse of said face.

"Voelker." Catherine tried the name out, testing it in her mouth. It was an interesting name, harsh and aggressive sounding, yet it flowed off the tongue smoothly.

"Halsey." The girl responded, studying her with a cold gaze.

"Why are you here?" Catherine asked, frowning slightly. Why did this girl interrupt her research? What was so damn important about this girl that had caused important work to be interrupted?

"I've studied your work on Cognitive Impression Modeling. It's incredible. I'm a huge fan of your work." Voelker said, her voice having little inflection, but not quite deadpan.

That was why she was here? To say she was a fan? To meet the great Dr. Catherine Halsey? Catherine tried to quell the irritation rising in her. "Yes?" She said, impatiently.

Voelker's mouth jerked up on one corner into what one could imagine was a smile. "I think it could be improved a bit."

Catherine couldn't stop her mouth from dropping open. The nerve of this child. To say that her technique for creating AI's was something that could be improved upon, as if she'd never tried to do so, was utterly insulting and completely out of line. How dare she.

Catherine stood up. "Get out. Get out of my lab, and don't come back."

Voelker didn't move. Her gaze remained on Catherine, unwavering. "You're not even curious?"

"No, I am not. I have tried to improve upon it before, and there is no better way for it to be done. If I cannot do it, no one can. Especially not a child. Get out."

"Not even if I told you that there was a far better method of neuron mapping in order to improve the Riemann matrix by streamlining the nano-assemblage?"

Catherine stopped. "What do you mean?"

Voelker shoved her hands into the pockets of her black BDU pants. "Exactly what I said. If you want the details, come find me at my post. I don't have the time to stay here and explain it to you."

Catherine was taken aback. She wasn't used to being so casually brushed off. "Your post?"

Voelker tossed her a half smile, half smirk. "I'll know you're interested if you show up." She turned and started to walk away. "I'm on a ship. UNSC _Oncoming Storm_. Ask for the Chief of Surgery."

"Wait!" Catherine started to walk after her.

"I'm busy, doc. Things to do, just like you." Voelker called back.

And just like that, she had gone.

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"I don't recall ever hearing of a Voelker. Is she UNSC?" Locke asked, jerking Dr. Halsey out of her memories and into the present.

"Yes." Halsey responded.

"You said scientist." Thel 'Vadam stepped forward. "I know that name, but I remember the person with that name very differently than a scientist."

Dr. Halsey smiled grimly. "You met her under very different circumstances, then."

"The Battle of the Citadel." It was John who interjected this. "She was no scientist in that fight."

"Don't I know it." Dr. Halsey said, bitterly. "She never could be satisified with just studies."

"I briefly recall her being aboard the _Shadow of Intent_." The Arbiter said thoughtfully. "And I saw her again, some years ago. I have not seen her since."

"She doesn't fight anymore." Dr. Halsey told the Arbiter. "Not for a while."

"Wish we had a way to contact her. Her knowledge could be useful." Locke said.

"You don't even know the half of it." Dr. Halsey said, staring out into the windy Sanghelios night.


	2. Chapter 2

When Dr. Halsey had said her name, John had known exactly who she was talking about. The people who made lasting impressions on him were few and far between, but the Voelker girl had been one of them. She hadn't done anything particularly brave or particularly noteworthy, she had been no hero. But still, the impression had been made.

The Arbiter was telling Dr. Halsey that he remembered the girl too, but she hadn't been any kind of scientist. Dr. Halsey responded by telling him that he had met the girl under very different circumstances, then.

"The Battle of the Citadel." John interjected, his mind starting to go back to the events of that day. "She was no scientist in that fight."

Dr. Halsey and the Arbiter continued to exchange a few words, but John didn't hear them. He was already a thousand miles away in his own mind, back at the Battle of the Citadel.

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The last Scarab had just been destroyed, and the order had been given for the Marines to deal with the last of the Covenant forces, then to take any of the surviving Elites and Marines back to the Shadow of Intent for evacuation.

John and the Arbiter had begun fighting their way to the facility where Truth was set to activate the Halo rings.

He had paused for a moment to catch his breath and survey the battlefield, which was littered with dead and the dying.

A few yards away, he noticed what looked like a civilian. It was a young woman, with no armor on, save a bulletproof vest. She wore black BDU's, the sleeves of her shirt were rolled up and she was carrying a large backpack on her shoulders. She had no weapon of any kind, not in her hands, not on her hip, no where else on her body. The sight made him pause. Marines never came to a fight with little armor and no weapon.

He watched as she knelt next to a corpse, checked for a pulse, then swiftly broke the corpse's neck. He felt a wave of shock wash over him.

Next to him, the Arbiter had stopped to watch as well. "What does your human do?" He asked, sounding as bewildered as John felt himself.

The young woman got up, moved on to the next form lying on the ground and did the same thing. And then another. Calmly, methodically.

All while gunfire was raging around her nearly completely unprotected form, which never seemed to occur to her, not for a moment.

The absolute insanity of what she was doing compelled John to act. His first instinct was to always try and protect people, and she looked like she would need protecting more than anyone else on the battlefield at the moment.

He quickly strode over towards her, noticing that the Arbiter had followed him. "What are you doing?" John demanded.

She looked up at him, her eyes looking him up and down, an unconcerned expression on her face. She was still kneeling on the ground. "I'm checking for survivors to evacuate. Get them stable, get them moved out of here."

It was then that John noticed the bright red cross on her bullet proof vest. A medic? Here? He shook his head, realizing she hadn't answered his question the way he had wanted it answered. "I meant why are you breaking their necks?" He asked.

She stood up and regarded him with the same calm, unconcerned gaze. "Your alliance with the Flood won't last long. They can't use the corpses if the central nervous system is damaged in some way. That's the other reason I'm here-to incapacitate as many corpses as possible, removing the Flood's ability to use them." She looked up to the sky for a brief moment, and the corner of her mouth turned up in what one could almost imagine was a smile. "Incapacitate a corpse-never thought I'd say that."

She turned from him, walked a few paces and knelt down next to another body. After checking the pulse, she quickly pulled out a small light and checked the eyes of the body. John noticed the Needler spike sticking out from the side of the body. The young woman did as well, pulled out some tools from her tactical belt and swiftly removed the armor and clothing material surrounding the spike. After that, she hefted the large backpack from her shoulders, unzipped one of the pockets and pulled out gauze, a bottle of some kind of liquid, something that looked suspiciously like a staple gun and a can of what looked like bio-foam, but that hadn't been used on the battlefield for a while. In one swift movement, she pulled the spike out and pressed the gauze to it for a few seconds, then doused the wound with liquid. She sprayed the foam, which quickly hardened to what looked like a gel, then took the object that looked like a staple gun, and paused. "If you can hear me, Marine, this is going to hurt." She put it up to the wound, John she could tell she was preparing to put staples in. He hoped they were of the medical variety.

An object hurtled past the side of her head that was facing away from John. It was pink. The young woman didn't react, simply fired three staples in rapid succession into the side of the Marine.

Apparently, she hadn't been kidding, because the Marine came to life after that, screaming. The corner of the young woman's mouth twitched again. "Responsive. Good sign." She pulled a yellow tag out of a pouch on her tactical belt, fastened it to the Marine's ankle, then stood up.

She turned and looked at John and the Arbiter, who was still behind him. "Why are you still here?" She asked, then gestured towards the facility where Truth was. "Go. I didn't come out here to die."

"You're bleeding." John found himself saying, as he stared at the side of her head. She was. There was a trickle of blood running down her jaw. The spike had nicked her head on the way by. And yet, she still hadn't flinched or even acknowledged it had happened.

"If only there was a doctor somewhere." She said, dryly. Then gestured again. "Go."

John held out his gun. "Take this." He'd pick one up somewhere. And even if he didn't, he still had an Elite with him.

She shook her head. "No."

"Why not?"

"I don't take life, I give it." The statement was matter-of-fact, rather than egoistical. The way she said it, John didn't doubt it for a second. "Go. You have all sentient life in the galaxy to save." Was the next statement she made.

John just nodded, and turned to go. He caught a glimpse of the name tag on her vest as she moved away from him in the opposite direction. Voelker.

He'd remember that name.

Their encounter had lasted less than three minutes, but he'd remember that name.

"Let's go." He said to the Arbiter.

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The voice of Spartan Locke brought him back to reality, the Spartan's words saying that he wished there was a way to contact her, as her knowledge could be useful.

"You don't even know the half of it." Dr. Halsey simply said, staring out into the distance. She closed her eyes momentarily.

"I wish we could contact anyone at all. But I'd have to agree that Voelker would be one of my first choices of people to contact." It was Buck that had spoken. The rest of the Spartans had exited the Pelican and had caught the last little bits of the conversation.

Dr. Halsey glanced at Buck. "You knew her?"

Buck nodded. "Knew her well. She did more than a few drops with my ODST team. There was no one better for those extraction missions."

Dr. Halsey gave a mirthless chuckle. "So it was you who kept taking her from me."

Buck looked at her, squinting. "I'm not sure I follow."

Dr. Halsey sighed. "When she worked with me, she was always abandoning important research to go joyriding in an HEV. It was a constant source of frustration. I don't understand how she could just leave her work unfinished."

John understood, though. He wouldn't voice that to Dr. Halsey, but he knew he would never be able to cope with staring at research.

"It may have been a frustration to you, but she was a godsend to us." Buck told Dr. Halsey. "That woman can out strategize an entire army. What it must be like in her head."

"What it must be like in her head, indeed." Dr. Halsey said quietly, once again staring out into the night.


	3. Chapter 3

Dr. Halsey was equal parts frustrated and relieved that she'd never truly known what went on inside Voelker's head. Frustrated because she would've given the world to know what Voelker knew from her work with smart AI's. Relieved, because Voelker was a kind of enigma in the way that suggested her mind ran the thin line between genius and insanity, frequently staggering back and forth across that line.

"She talked to them, you know." Tanaka spoke up, looking at Dr. Halsey with a careful expression.

"I know." Dr. Halsey said, almost curtly.

"Talked to who?" Palmer asked, her eyes darting back and forth between the two.

"The AI's." Dr. Halsey closed her eyes briefly, then opened them again to look at Palmer. "She was always talking to the AI's. She believed she could find a way to prevent or cure rampancy, and she believed the best way to do that was to talk to the AI's."

"Was it the best way?" Palmer asked, her gaze resting steadily on Dr. Halsey's

"I don't know." Dr. Halsey broke eye contact and her gaze wandered, her eyes focused on something in the distance that she wasn't actually seeing. "I was never able to find out."

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Dr. Halsey threw open the door to her lab, storming inside, her heavy footsteps echoing the exasperation she was feeling.

She threw herself into the chair at her work desk and picked up the now cold cup of coffee she had gotten earlier. How much earlier? She didn't even know.

She leaned forward and rested her forehead on her hand, elbows propped up on the desk.

Someone set down another cup of coffee in front of her, hard, the sound loud enough to jolt Catherine out of her own head and into the present moment.

She stared at the cup. It was steaming. The coffee was hot.

"I wish you'd stop slamming things around on my desk like an ogre." She said, with a somewhat cranky disposition, picking up the cup and taking a small sip. The coffee was almost too hot to drink. Or maybe she was just so used to drinking cold coffee that anything hotter than lukewarm seemed nearly unconsumable. She swallowed the coffee and continued, "And I thought I told you I'm perfectly fine with drinking cold coffee."

She looked up to see the young, blonde woman lean up against the console next to the desk, a shade of bemusement in her steely eyes. "Stop leaning on my equipment. What are you even doing here?"

Voelker folded her arms in a gesture of someone making themselves comfortable rather than responding to a combative tone such as the one Catherine was using to speak to her.

Catherine almost felt bad. Leigh did nothing to warrant being spoken to in such a harsh manner other than existing in the same room as herself at a time when she was in such a bad mood.

"I was having a nice discussion on existential philosophy with Jarrod." Leigh said, angling her head back and looking up at the ceiling. "No, I take that back. It wasn't a nice discussion, as I'm always loathe to meditate on the particulars of my own existence."

Catherine saw one side of Leigh's mouth turn upward slightly. "But Jarrod seemed to enjoy forcing me to contemplate the Buddhaic plane of existence and how my existence is far, far from that plane. Isn't that right, Jarrod?" Leigh called out, glancing towards the console that housed Jarrod's data chip.

The small light flickered. "Quite right, Ms. Voelker. I did rather enjoy being the superior mind in our little discussion."

The upward flicker of the corner of Leigh's mouth seemed to add more life into her normally dull, impassive facial expression.

"You came here to talk to an AI? About existential philosophy? And that's all?" Catherine turned her chair so she was fully facing Leigh, unable to keep the shock and vague disgust out of her voice.

"You know, Doc, some people actually do have conversations for social interaction purposes." Leigh slowly unfolded her body from her position against the console, standing upright.

"But with an AI?" Catherine demaded, her eyes narrowing at Leigh in something akin to confusion, feeling a twinge of irritation. She was ONI's head scientist and Leigh constantly referring to her as "Doc" seemed to be the girl's casual, passive way of communicating to Catherine that the girl didn't give a damn about Catherine's rank within ONI.

"Why not? Jarrod's a great conversationalist." Leigh shrugged. "I also want to know what to expect when you end up making me your next personal smart AI."

Catherine stared at her, trying to discern what the look in Leigh's eyes meant as the girl studied her, waiting for her reaction.

"You say that like you intend to die before I do." Catherine scoffed.

"I don't intend to, no. But am I prepared for the possibility? Absolutely." Leigh said, taking a few steps in a way that Catherine thought seemed like a bit of a swagger.

"Voelker." Catherine was forced to turn her chair more in order to keep her eyes on the girl. "Why are you here? I know you didn't leave the Storm just to discuss existential philosophy with my AI."

"Do you? Maybe I did." Leigh said, her voice slightly muffled from having her back turned on Catherine.

"I was under the impression that Omicron was enough of an AI conversation partner for you." Catherine said, scoffing again.

"Hmm." Was all Leigh said as she stood for a moment, her back still turned to Catherine.

There was silence. Catherine was not going to give the girl the satisfaction of hearing her beg for an answer.

Leigh seemed to know that was the case, as she turned to face Catherine after a few seconds. "I originally came here to seek Jarrod's opinion on an idea. An idea that was sparked by an offhand remark by Omicron."

Catherine fought back a sigh. If she ever found the individual responsible for assigning Omicron as The Oncoming Storm's shipboard AI, she would have no qualms about burying them so deep that not even ONI could find them. That AI had given Leigh too many ideas about too many things. She couldn't even fathom spending as much time talking to an AI as Leigh did, let alone obtaining inspiration from one.

She gestured at Leigh. "Are you going to tell me what the idea was?"

"In due time." Leigh replied, leaning up against the console next to Jarrod. "But first I'll provide some background." She settled in more comfortably against the console, causing Catherine to fight back another sigh. She would prefer Leigh simply get to the point but that didn't appear to be where the course of events was headed.

"On one of my many sleepless nights, I was in the midst of having one of my usual conversations with Omicron when he remarked that the process of having an AI interface with the MJOLNIR armor seemed 'clunky', as he so memorably put it." The twitch on the corner of Leigh's mouth was back.

"If he had any revelations on how to solve that exact issue, the one I've been struggling with for months, I would dearly love to hear them." Catherine snapped impatiently.

Leigh was completely unaffected by the near vitriol in her tone. "He didn't have any revelations, no. But I did." She met Catherine's stony gaze with her own steely gaze. "Instead of having the AI interface with the suit...have it interface with the wearer."

Catherine stared at her in disbelief. "What, exactly, does that even mean?"

Leigh shrugged. "It could mean upgrading the existing standard neural interface with a more specialized neural lace to allow the advanced expert systems of a smart AI to augment the wearer's motor system. Maybe even bypass the wearer's motor system."

Catherine was still in disbelief. "You're suggesting that an AI should be able to take control of the motor system of the wearer of the MJOLNIR armor?"

Leigh shrugged again. "It's more efficient than having the AI interact with the armor alone."

"But how would that motor system augmentation, or bypass, even work?" Catherine asked, trying not to think about the ethical implications of Leigh's idea.

"High bandwidth interface. It's a concept already in motion from the early days of the MJOLNIR armor, according to the files I got my hands on with Omicron's assistance." Leigh tossed Catherine a full grin. "Outfit the suit with a layer of computer memory superconductor, pair it with a modified neural interface incorporating the high bandwidth to translate electrochemical signals into digital code, then route them into a connection with the neural interface."

Catherine leaned back into her chair. Her thoughts were starting to race. "With that kind of interface, the MJOLNIR itself would be controlled through the wearer's thoughts. Pairing that with the smart AI would allow the AI to feed the input from the already existing onboard sensors into the wearer's mind at a near instantaneous rate, allowing for far better reaction time and communication of information between the AI, the armor and the wearer." Catherine stared at Leigh again. "How long did it take you to come up with this idea?"

"As much as I'd like to say it all came to me in a flash of divine inspiration, it took a couple days. I had to figure out what kind of processes would be needed to allow the MJOLNIR armor to handle translating the electrochemical signals into digital code. Those research files and reports were the answer I needed." Leigh looked a bit too proud of herself.

Not from the brilliance of her idea, no. But for the near miraculous acquisition of MJOLNIR research and report files that should never have been accessible for a starship's Chief of Surgery. What Leigh was doing in that kind of position was a mystery in and of itself to Catherine, as someone with a PhD in biotechnology was far overqualified to be a goddamned head surgeon.

"Hmm." Catherine studied Leigh again. "In theory, it should work. In practice?" Catherine shook her head slightly. "That, I'm not so sure about."

"Jarrod seems to think it will work wonderfully." Leigh assured her. "But there's a way to find out."

Good god. Catherine wasn't sure she wanted to know what that way was, but she knew Leigh would tell her whether she wanted to know or not.

"Put it to the test on your favorite experimental subject and see what he can do with it."

Catherine jabbed a finger at her. "You're out of your mind if you think I'd have John be the one to test it."

Leigh pushed herself off the console. "Am I? He seems to not only succeed but to excel at everything he's ever done. Why not have him be the one to test it?"

Catherine shook her head. "No. It could harm him catastrophically."

"That didn't stop you the first time around." Lee said, walking towards the door. "See you later, Doc. Finish your damn coffee for once."

And then she was gone.

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Dr. Halsey shook her head to clear it, then looked back at Palmer. "I never found out if her conversations with the AI's ever lead to an effective solution to rampancy. But those conversations with the AI's definitely sparked ideas leading to breakthroughs in other areas of biotechnology." Dr. Halsey closed her eyes again. "And the world will never know, because those ideas were credited to me. And thanks to Parangosky, I cannot correct that."

"I don't think she'd want the credit for those anyway." Buck offered. "She told me once that she liked knowing you had to live with the knowledge that what people thought was your genius was actually her genious."

Dr. Halsey stared at him. "Did she really?"

"She did, really." Buck gave her a half hearted smile.

"Somehow, I'm not surprised." Dr. Halsey said softly, staring back out into the distance.


End file.
